


Rhamnousia

by Anonymous



Series: okurimono-dono [5]
Category: Evillious Chronicles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:01:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27472441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: An alternate ending to the Venomania Event.
Series: okurimono-dono [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1968400
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14
Collections: Union Server of Evillious 24 hour ficjam





	Rhamnousia

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Kneel

"Kneel."

A sharp kick to the back of the knees sent Sateriasis tumbling onto cold marble. Instinctively, he splayed his fingers wide open, not realizing he'd made a mistake until he felt his palm hit the floor tiles, sending a jolt through his hand and causing a cracking sound in his left wrist. He stared at the ground, silky purple strands of hair and saliva falling down his face,and tried to blink away the pain clouding his mind.

Nothing had been broken that could not be fixed. Already he knew the demonblood was at work, turning his wrist back into its proper position, knitting the bone back together. It made him light-headed, though, which didn't help the with the pounding already in his skull, drumming away arrhythmically like the synchronized pounding of a thousand tiny spider legs on his temples. Gathering his senses, he tried to look up, but was met with a firm foot on the back of his neck, forcing his head down onto the ground.

"Urk-"

A strangled cry from his throat, met only with the steel of a cold stare on his back.

"Your Grace." Her words, golden snakes dripping venom, twisted from her mouth in bitter sarcasm.

"L- Lukana... Why...?"

The syllables worked their way between his teeth as Sateriasis clawed at the floor. Though he could see nothing but velvet carpet and white stone, the way her face crunched into disgust was almost audible.

"You have some nerve, don't you?"

A low humming sound filled the air, and cold metal joined the warm weight of her foot on Sateriasis's neck. He felt it prick at his skin, coaxing purple blood from his veins.

"Look at me when I speak to you."

Lukana's foot lifted from his neck, but just as Sateriasis breathed in a gulp of air it came back lightning fast, kicking him in the jaw. A couple molars jostled loose in the back of his mouth, but the anxious demonblood wove new ones in their place and erased the bruise on his cheek. Then cold fingers on his chin, lifting it up so he gazed into two unrecognizably blue eyes, scorching him with their icy chill.

"What a pathetic sight you look now, hm? And to think I was taken in by your charms when I first met you. I didn't know you were a demon then..."

Another kick, this time to the right shoulder. He groaned as he felt it setting itself back into place, pushing aside muscle and sinew. Sateriasis was starting to get scared. He didn't know why, since it should have been impossible to hurt him with the demon in his veins. But he was unable to move an inch, paralyzed as he was in absolute fear. All he could do was look into her eyes and weep helplessly.

"But I should have known. I saw a dream, tinged with purple. A terrible monster, goat-horned and rooster-clawed, stalking its prey by the light of the midnight moon. Stalking me."

Whatever metal object was on his neck now flicked to the side, cutting a gash across his nape. Sateriasis cried out, or at least he thought he did. Why wasn't his neck stitching itself back together?

"You put your little spell on me and locked me away here to be your first wife. You hid me away in the basement because I was your secret shame and by night you would visit me, again and again until you got bored, and discarded me for another. The worst part was that you would always come back."

The blade on Sateriasis's neck slowly dug down, until the tip of it just reached his windpipe. What was going on? Why wasn't he healing?

"Night after night after night." With each word she slid the blade up and back down again, slicing cleanly through the fibers of his flesh. "But you were arrogant, and tried too much. You didn't even realize it when I.R. left you, huh? She saw that you were about to come to ruin. That's why she gave me this. To finish the job on my own."

A swipe to the right. Purple blood was surely gushing from his neck at this point. But if it was Sateriasis couldn't feel it. The pounding in his head only got worse, compounded by the faint pounding of footsteps in the back of his mind.

"'Clavis irae', she called it. But she did not know its true name: Grim, the End. She did not know that it is Death, Destroyer of Worlds."

Sateriasis lashed out with his mind, flailing desperately for the demon. Slowly but surely he saw the gnarled horns emerge from the purple mist in his mind's eye.

**<...It's over already, little Duke?>**

_It's not over! You have to help me!_

Sateriasis's hands twitched, fingers clawing at empty air.

**< No, it's quite over, I think. She's right, you know? You were too arrogant.>**

_I.R. told me I couldn't die so long as my contract held! What is this?_

The demon did not blink. It did not laugh, or weep, or turn away. It yawned.

**< The power of Ira on its own might be something we could hope to withstand. But as luck would have it, my troublesome colleague equipped that key of his with anti-demonic magic. He always has to have the last laugh, I suppose.>**

The footsteps were clearly audible now. A stampede, silent except for the sound of skin against marble and breath against air. He knew his wives were deserting him.

**<...Speaking of my colleagues, perhaps you will be so kind as to send my regards to the Master of the Hellish Yard...? I haven't seen her in quite some time...>**

"You can't do this..."

Too late Sateriasis realized he'd spoken those words aloud. He felt her foot on his chest and then the force of a stone pillar on his back. Surely he'd cracked some vertebrae.

"You will die now, and the empire will know of your misdeeds. Your lands will be confiscated, your family name will become a blight on the empire's history."

Lukana stepped closer, and at last Sateriasis could see her in full. Golden light shone from the long flamberge in her right hand. She was not in her silken harem dress, but her old, ragged tailor's garment. Her long pink hair fell across her face and cascaded over her shoulders, growing snakelike at the ends.

"To hell with you at last."

Sateriasis could not manage to close his eyes before the flamberge blade sank deep into his chest. As the demonblood ran down his shirt and soaked through his fingers he suddenly remembered the one thing he had forgotten to say. But not even one syllable could be choked out before he collapsed lifeless on the floor.

* * *

**< Are you satisfied?>**

"...No."

**< You're still angry.>**

"...Yes."

**<...That's to be expected, I guess. What will you do now?>**

"I'll go far away from here. Maybe sail the boundless seas to the west, or journey across the great empty plains to the east. But I'm not staying here."

**< Hm. It's your choice, I suppose.>**

"What else would you have me do?"

**< You have Grim, the End. You have Death, Destroyer of Worlds. Don't you want this to never happen again?>**

"..."

**< Take that katana, Lukana. Together we'll gather the Vessels of Deadly Sin and eliminate evil from this world once and for all.>**

"I suppose... it was fun to have a demon kneeling at my feet. Even if it didn't do anything else for me."

**<...Yes. And when all six demons have been sealed away, I will find her again at last.>**

"Hm?"

**< Oh, never mind me. You were pretty badass when you said "kneel", you know?>**

For the first time in over a year, Lukana caught herself genuinely smiling.

"Thanks. Shall we embark, then?"

The being inside the key almost smiled back.

**< Let's go.>**

**Author's Note:**

> By Gift (@okurimono-dono.tumblr.com)


End file.
